Milking Cow

Phoebe exclaimed,"Pump pump again?" Yes, these days I've been pumping extremely frequently, almost once every 2.5 hours and each session last for about 45 minutes and yet only getting a meagre 125ml of milk. Is my milk supply depleting, am I feeling stressed and tired of expressiong my milk, is Reuben drinking too much or am I not giving my breasts enough time to produce the milk that is needed? Probably all of the above reasons. Phoebe used to drink every 3 hourly. But Reuben needs to be fed 2 to 2.5 hourly. In fact, 1.5 hours after he was last fed, he started searching and making noises already. Everyone says, he's a boy so he drinks more. But at the rate he's going, I praying very hard that God will multiply my milk and let it flow like a fountain! Maybe I've to start introducing cereal to him when he reaches 4 months old. I was able to full-breastfeed Phoebe for six months and she only started cereal in her 7th month.

On Monday I'll resume teaching. I'll be away from Reuben for about 8 hours (11 a.m. to 7 p.m.) so I would need at least 4 bottles of milk to get him through the day. Till now, I already have 3 bottles. I hope by the end of Sunday, I can accumulate another 2 bottles, 1 being a spare. It's not going to be easy because I need to feed him and yet pump the milk for storage. To make the matter worse, Reuben does not like to latch on. He prefers to be bottle-fed. Hence, I need to pump out the milk to bottle feed him. That makes me almost perpetually pumping and squeezing every ooze of milk that I have. Talk about impatient and fussy babies, yup I think mine fits the bill! So now you know why Phoebe asks me, "Mommy pump pump again?"